30/08/2025
Preparing for Exams
There is absolutely no substitute for regular and steady preparation throughout the entire duration of your semester. If you have attended all your lectures and tutorials, made notes and field them in order, completed the worksheets and kept revisiting your work at the end of each day, then you are at a great advantage. Your brain has absorbed the information that you have given it over a period of time and it has become embedded in your mind. There is no last minute panicking and cramming needed. Your exam preparation should consist of practicing problems under timed conditions and looking at past exam papers (Past question paper).
If you haven’t been quite so organized then stop procrastinating and start revising! First of all, you need to make sure that your notes are complete and in order. Then you simply need to sit down, stop finding other things to do and force yourself to revise. Set yourself small targets to begin with (for example, I will do three problems from the end of chapter 1 under timed conditions). Build up your confidence and your tolerance for working and soon you will be making serious progress. If you are still finding it difficult to get down to work, then re-visit the procrastination section and address the causes of your procrastination. Your future depends on it!
It can be overwhelming when you have years of study to process to know where to start. Break down your course into manageable chunks and make a timetable that allocate time to all of these chunks. Once you have developed a routine and allocated time to all your subjects then stick to it. Do your least favourite subject or the one you find most difficult earlier in the day to get it out of the way. Do not underestimate the important of relaxing. You should ai to come away from your desk after one hour of study for about ten minutes. You need to give yourself a complete break and have something to look forward to every day.
This can be a relaxing bath, a workout in the gym or anything that takes your mind off exams.
It is not just a question of putting in the hours, you need to develop an effective revision technique and that does not entail lying in bed reading a textbook. After ten minutes your eyes will glaze over and you will end up falling asleep. Like lectures, revision need to have active input from you to make it enjoyable and to engage your brain so that it remembers more. Some tings you can do are:
1. Revise in a group with other students – ut do be careful that you don’t get istracted
2. Write up a chapter summarise
3. Draw diagrams
4. Make posters
5. Do exercises, worksheets and solve past questions papers
While you need all the knowledge that you have gained to be fresh in your mind for the exam, don’t be fooled into thinking that you will achieve this by leaving your revision till the last minute. Your brain will not have had time to process all the information so it will just leave you feeling muddled and anxious. If you have been revising in advance, then you can always revisit your work nearer the time to keep it fresh in your mind.
However tempting it is to cram until the last minute, do make the time to get a good night’s sleep the night before an exam and a good nutritious breakfast in the morning. And lastly, it might sound obvious but check your exam timetable for the secret time and place of your exam and make sure that you arrive well before it begins.
By Umar Abubakar Hadejia
